Review brought to you by OBS staff member Annabell Cadiz

Synopsis: Mae was a born writer. Her life’s passion was to find the ultimate story. In her quest to find the truth behind the Jersey Devil disappearances, Mae uncovers something much more sinister wandering the Whitebog area at night.

Little did she know that the ultimate story would be her own… and she’d by dying to tell it.

Review: The End of Mae is about a sassy, yet naive, small town reporter named Mae. She is camping out in the Whitesbog woods in the hope of capturing the evidence she will need to wrap up what she hopes will be a big story and launch her career into stardom. The area of Whitesbog woods has recently experienced a slew of unexplained disappearances which has left many believing the Jersey Devil, who is said to haunt the forests in search of prey, is the one behind the events. Mae doesn’t really believe in the tales behind the Jersey Devil but is determined to break away from her small town. But soon Mae finds herself thrown into a dark and sinister world, where the real world fades and the supernatural takes flight.

The pacing and suspense of the story were written quite well. Smith draws you into Mae’s ordeal right from the beginning and never really lets you come up for air. The mood and tone are set from the point you begin reading. You are sucked into the dreary and frightening world Mae falls into.

I am not a fan of weak willed female characters. Mae falls under that category. She was too naive, too gullible to the point of annoyance. She barely ever tried fighting back and believed Heylel WAY too easily. In a way, I can understand that her ignorance can be attributed to her small town life and the myriad of pain she faces, but even then, flight or fight kicks in. Mae should have found her surroundings more than odd as well as the characters who are supposed to be there to help. Instead, Mae swoons over Heylel and believes his every word. She never questions what is happening to her for very long and I just found myself unable to truly care about her.

Heylel was as evil as evil can get. He proves that a book, or well in Heylel’s case, a person, most definitely cannot be judged by his outward beauty. He drips in malice and enjoys inflicting pain. He goes after what he wants and always gets it.

The End of Mae was a decent read but the novel could use some good content editing. The constant use of Mae’s name instead of pronouns was very distracting and frankly, annoying. The fluidity of the story is interrupted by the repetition of certain words and sometimes flat writing. The story wasn’t as developed as I would have liked. Mae is not fully developed or Dr. Smeltzer or Prym. I was left to wonder how Dr. Smeltzer ended up getting involved with Heylel and what Prym was. I was never sure if she was really human or some type of supernatural creature. Heylel seemed to be the base developed character but even he wasn’t in the story enough.

I also didn’t like the comment Mae made about having switched over from writing fiction to becoming a journalist because fiction writers don’t make any money. There are countless authors who have proven that comment is completely false. Mae either didn’t do enough research or wasn’t considered a very good fiction writer. It was another reason I didn’t care for her character.

A novella is a great read because it’s usually fast but if you aren’t use to writing short stories than your characters fall away and your plot isn’t as rounded as readers enjoy reading. Aside from the various faults to the End of Mae, it’s still a very intriguing read. I would recommend it to young adults from the age sixteen and up because of the darker content explored within the novella. I feel if the writer hired a good editor and stripped down the content, the End of Mae could be turned into a book that would appeal to an even bigger audience.

You can check out more about the author and her novels at her website here.